Latin America rings in New Year with colourful undies for love, luck

SANTIAGO: Yellow underwear is flying off the shelves here where tradition holds that it brings prosperity and love if you wear it on New Year’s Eve.

That was just one of many colourful New Year’s rituals in Latin America, where some spend the evening walking around with a suitcase, others put potatoes under the bed and still others throw buckets of water out the window.

“The yellow underwear is for love, luck, money and so that this year will go well for everyone,” said Gladys Leal, a saleswoman at a lingerie stand in Santiago’s Meiggs neighbourhood.

This time of year, she specialises in yellow undergarments in all shapes and sizes, for women and men alike.

But there’s a catch, her colleague, Jesica Silva, said: “The underwear has to be given as a gift to bring luck.”

Yellow, she added, “represents the golden rays of abundance and prosperity”.

Some even say the undies should be worn inside-out to guarantee a year full of passion.

“Beyond yellow lingerie, the tradition is more tied to the colour itself,” said Chilean writer Hector Velis-Meza, author of a book called The Secret History of Christmas and New Year’s.

Yellow is seen in Latin America as a symbol of the sun, an eternal light, he said.

Chile is not the only country that adheres to the tradition.

It also exists in Mexico, Peru and Ecuador, with slight variations. Some say you should wear red undies for love, yellow for money.

In Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil, pink is the colour of choice.

And in Venezuela, revellers are supposed to wear only new clothes – a tall order this year as the once-booming oil exporter struggles through an economic crisis.

For some, it is indispensable to welcome the New Year by eating lentils. For others, it is 12 grapes, one at each strike of the clock at midnight, a tradition inhered from Spain.

In many countries, revellers ring in the New Year by walking around the neighbourhood with a suitcase, a ritual meant to guarantee a year of journeys.

In Uruguay, people often throw buckets of water out the window to wipe the slate clean for the new year. — AFP